First published in  CubedGamers (Printed Edition): May 2015

It’s amazing sometimes what indie game designers can accomplish. Nintendo would probably never go to the effort to create a game starring Waluigi – the least popular of all the Mario World characters, yet Thunder Dragon – who’d previously created Toad Strikes Back (starring Toadstool) – seized the task and produced a game that is of comparable quality to many of Nintendo’s 2D platformers.

Simply put, Psycho Waluigi is one of the best fan-made games ever made. Developed with the Multimedia Fusion 2 engine, the game stars Waluigi, who is knocked out of his hot air balloon one day and lands in the strange land of Unconcia, and is granted psychokinetic powers by an evil entity called Psycho Iris, who suggests he try to take over the world.

The level design is where the game really shines, with obstacles well placed, and the graphics are nice to look at, combining influences from Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island. An additional twist is the fact that the game isn’t just about reaching the end, but instead focuses on collecting items to boost your score, which encourages further exploration.

Conclusion: 10/10 Hard to believe that the Psycho Waluigi is the work of a lone fan. An uninitiated player would believe it was the latest Nintendo release.